MilometryElectric cars and the mileage rate: three countries, three answers
Britain pays an EV the same as a diesel, Ireland files it under an engine size, and France gives it its own higher scale. None of them is pure costing.
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An approved mileage rate is meant to approximate the cost of running a car. Electric cars broke that approximation, and three countries have patched it three different ways.
Britain: the same rate, and no questions
For a car you own, HMRC applies the approved mileage rates regardless of what is under the bonnet. An electric car gets 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p after (for journeys from 6 April 2026), exactly as a petrol one does.
An electric car charged at home costs a fraction of a petrol car per mile in energy, so the approved amount goes much further on the energy part of the bill. That is not profit. The rate also has to cover insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation, which an electric car still has.
The important caveat is that this applies to your own car. For a company electric car, the employer can reimburse business mileage tax free at HMRC's advisory electricity rate, which covers electricity alone because the company is already carrying the rest of the cost. HMRC now publishes two figures: from 1 September 2026, 7p a mile for home charging and 15p a mile for public charging, revised quarterly. Using the approved rate for a company EV is a common and costly mistake.
Ireland: file it under a petrol engine
Ireland's civil service rates band by engine capacity, which an electric car does not have. Rather than build a new band, Ireland tells employers to reimburse fully electric vehicles at the rates for the 1,201cc to 1,500cc band, the middle one.
It is a workaround and it is honest about being one. The effect is that an Irish EV driver is paid as though running a mid-sized petrol car, arrived at by administrative convenience rather than measurement.
France: an uplift, on purpose
France publishes a separate barème kilométrique for fully electric vehicles, with higher figures than the scale for other cars.
This is the only one of the three that is explicitly not a costing exercise. An electric car costs less per kilometre in energy, so a cost based approach would pay it less. France pays it more, deliberately, as an incentive.
It is worth being clear about that, because it is the opposite of what the rate is nominally for. France has decided the barème can carry a policy goal as well as a cost estimate.
The three, side by side
| UK | Ireland | France | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Own EV, business miles | Same rate as petrol | 1,201cc to 1,500cc rates | Separate, higher electric scale |
| Rationale | No distinction drawn | Administrative convenience | Deliberate incentive |
| Company EV | Advisory electricity rate: two figures, home and public charging | Employer scheme | Employer scheme |
| What the rate covers | All running costs, not only energy | All running costs | All running costs except tolls and parking |
The bit that catches everyone
In all three, the trap is the same and it is not the rate. It is the distinction between a car you own and a car your employer provides.
The approved rate, the civil service rate and the barème are all about a vehicle you own and run. A car provided by your employer is a different animal in every one of these systems, because the employer is already paying for the vehicle. In Britain the tax-free figure for a company EV is the much lower, energy-only advisory electricity rate.
People who move from their own car to a company car, or the reverse, can easily carry the old rate with them without noticing. On an EV the gap between the two figures is unusually wide, so the error is unusually expensive.
What to record
Nothing changes. Date, destination, purpose, distance, at the time.
What does change is that your real cost per mile is now genuinely knowable, because charging is metered in a way petrol at a pump is not. If you log what you actually pay to charge, you can see what the energy for each mile really costs. On a home charged EV in Britain that energy cost sits well below the approved rate, but remember the rate is also meant to cover everything else the car costs you.
Sources
- Travel, mileage and fuel rates and allowances (HMRC)
- Expenses and benefits: business travel mileage, rules for tax (HMRC)
- Advisory fuel rates, including the advisory electricity rates (HMRC)
- Increasing mileage rates (HMRC policy paper)
- Civil service rates (Revenue)
- Frais de transport (impots.gouv.fr)
- Simulateur du barème kilométrique (impots.gouv.fr)
General information for drivers in the UK, Ireland and France, not tax advice. Rates and uplifts change: check the current figures with the authority you file under.
